UN Sponsors CFFC Attack on the Holy See

Volume 5, Number 15 ,p> UN Sponsors "Catholics" for a Free Choice Attack on the Holy See

"Catholics" for a Free Choice (CFFC) this week has renewed its attack against the status of the Holy See at the United Nations, this time with the apparent approval of at least one member state and the United Nations Secretariat, headed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In an official statement submitted for the Commission on Population and Development, CFFC called for the Holy See to abandon its positions on matters relating to sexual ethics and HIV/AIDS prevention: "CFFC recommends a change in the policies held by the Holy See to support the use of condoms to prevent AIDS and other diseases; to approve the use of modern methods of contraception, including emergency contraception, to prevent unwanted pregnancy; and to support non-coercive, safe and legal abortion."

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) almost never criticize the policies of individual countries. CFFC's statement is thought to break a longstanding UN protocol, which prohibits politically motivated attacks by NGOs upon UN members.

All official NGO statements must be submitted to the UN Secretariat for approval. It is unknown why the Secretariat gave this unusually confrontational statement its approval. According to one diplomatic source, the statement was translated into the six official UN languages, a procedure which is very costly and that needs an official request from at least one member state of the UN General Assembly. It is not known which country or countries made this request, but Holy See defenders intend to find out.

The statement repeats arguments made within other CFFC assaults on Church doctrine. According to CFFC, the Catholic Church has enacted a worldwide "ban" on condoms, and this ban is directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people: "Given the high risk of death from HIV/AIDS, and in particular the high rate of heterosexual transmission of HIV/AIDS to women in Africa, the Church's total opposition to education about and use of condoms clearly violates international standards of medical ethics..Hence, to deny them [African women] condoms is to be willing to condemn them - and their children - to death." The Holy See does not have the power to ban condom use by anyone. She teaches that abstinence before marriage and fidelity within marriage are the most effective ways of avoiding AIDS infection.

The CFFC statement also claims that "The Holy See's 'prohibition' on abortion and contraception and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS is not subject to papal infallibility and Catholics are free to disagree with these institutional positions." This contradicts the doctrine that allows for papal infallibility on questions of faith and morals. More than one Pope has infallibly decided both the questions of abortion and contraception.

When referring to the Holy See as a country, CFFC places the word country in quotation marks, as if the statehood of the Holy See is a disputed issue. This follows on CFFC's unsuccessful effort to have the Holy See's status at the UN downgraded from that of a non-member State with Permanent Observer Status to that of a non-governmental organization.

Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427
New York, New York 10017
Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291
E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org
Website: www.c-fam.org

All in the name of killing babies. Pathetic, I sincerely hope the US doesn't support Annan for Secretary-General again.

Some excerpts from a group called the “Millennium Project of the United Nations University's Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER).” You are of course paying for them:

Phase I began in November 1992 with support from the U.S. EPA and with the collaboration of the Smithsonian and the Futures Group to identify and link futurists, scholars and institutions around the world to explore the feasibility creating an international information system of forecasts, questions, lessons from history, potential futures agendas, and other data banks and networks via a two round Delphi on the process of organizing the project and a two round Delphi on population & environment. The report of phase I- including the results of the population & environment forecasting and policy ratings can be accessed via gopher futures.wic.epa.gov

This is a group that rates the impact and likelihood that the Holy See will change its view on contraceptives:

2.3 (impact that such a change would have) 3.3 (likelihood that they will change; 3 = Even or 50/50 chance 4 = Unlikely ) Change in the Vatican's position: use of contraceptives becomes available without limit

Of course, they don’t stop with merely rating it, they brainstorm ways to make it happen:

1.4.2 Novel policies that could lead to the Vatican's acceptance of contraception without limit:
- Remove Holy See from the United Nations on grounds that it is not really a country and give it the same status as the World Council of Churches.
- Promotion of contraceptive that is accompanied with strong dissemination of moral values.
- Separate personal religious beliefs from personal choices as to the use of contraceptives.
- Theological doctrine developed by U.S. Catholic Bishops in support of sustainable development (of Government Statements at UNCED 1992).
- New international convention of religious leaders - Vatican III - with supporting papal encyclical letter - 1995.
- Elect a non-European Pope.
- Schism
- It is not practical.
- Create philosophical shift among powerful within the Roman Catholic Church.
- Policies that focus on responsabilization of woman to make choices.
- Only decline of organized religion is likely to affect the situation.
- Allow priests and nuns to marry and pay for the raising of children.
- Reconsideration of the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas - especially the discarding of the Thomastic view of "natural law" as it applied to human sexuality. Christ said nothing whatsoever about human sexuality. Separate the notion of procreation as the only "natural end" from that of enjoyment.
- Try to influence Vatican that some kinds of contraceptions could possibly be acceptable-not"chemical" and for women contraception but "mechanical" and for men (condoms)contraception.

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